[jacquesm]

Hacker News has officially lost the plot. Instead of flagging this and moving on we are now debating not whether or not to ban project-evidence on sight but whether or not the release was intentional or not.

Can we all come to our senses please? What are the chances that you'd find out about this from some github.io pages instead of from all the intelligence services in the West who would have been on this like flies if it had a snowball's chance in hell of being true.

A large amount of evidence collected to make a certain narrative look plausible is not worth to be debated on its merits. There is evidence that Martians created our moon because gravity is real. Try refuting that.

[tomohawk]

Are we really at the point where we know for certain how this pandemic came about? Is there really only one true view?

There's basically 3 theories that have been put out:

1: The US military developed it. This theory from some CCP higher ups was quickly discredited.

2: It originated in a wet market in Wuhan

This theory does not account for a few things, such as (a) how did the bats end up there? (b) Is there any proof that there were every any bats there? (c) What about the early patients who had no connection to the market?

3: It originated from a lab in Wuhan

The report shows that there are 2 labs in Wuhan, and both of these labs dealt with bats that have a high probability of having this virus. They show this through the published research from the labs as well as other items such as job announcements, etc.

This at least puts the bats (and virus) in Wuhan, explaining how they ended up being there from so far away.

The report goes to great pains to state that no conspiracy is needed, or tie in to bio weapons, or whatever. We simply have some labs dealing with these bats and viruses, in the location where the pandemic started, and there are many possible avenues as to how the virus could have got out.

I don't see how the report delves into conspiracy theories.

[DiogenesKynikos]

You left out theory 4, which is what the vast majority of virologists believe:

4. The virus transferred from an infected animal (not necessarily a bat) to a human, either at the Wuhan South China Seafood market or somewhere else, possibly in the countryside. The market might have just been the site of the first superspreading event. In a big country like China, millions of people come into contact with infected animals all the time. There's no need to invent a Hollywood-style theory about the virus escaping from a lab to explain how it got into humans.

[ilikehurdles]

Innuendo and rumor mongering? That's where HN is now?

These are serious accusations, and you owe it to the rest of us to provide some serious proof.

[paypalcust83]

When common sense and critical thinking skills break down, cult worship of dishonest charlatans, and pervasive dishonest, magical thinking and brutality overtake reason and decency, civilization is close to upheaval or on its way out.

I think HN needs filters to avoid conspiracy theory and hate sites, and suggest tags based on AI proofreading to if phrases, themes, or hate are present.

It's either that or create a nicer, saner HN that is vouched invite-only with almost identifiable identities and low-res face photo avatars (reduce cyberdisinhibitionism per BaseCamp's findings)... because this sort of content is as garbage as flat earth and chemtrails.